Former Heisman Trophy winner John David Crow holds Paul “Bear” Bryant’s college Hall of Fame Award at the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame banquet at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Tuesday, Dec. 9, 1986. Crow accepted the award on behalf of Bryant, who died in 1983, just 37 days after retiring with the most victories in college football history. less

Former Heisman Trophy winner John David Crow holds Paul “Bear” Bryant’s college Hall of Fame Award at the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame banquet at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Tuesday, ... more

Photo: Ron Frehm /Associated Press

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Teaming up for a busy season with the San Francisco 49ers is quarterback John Brodie, right, and halfback John David Crow, left, shown during Aug. 10, 1965 practive session at the 49ers training camp in Moraga, Calif. less

Teaming up for a busy season with the San Francisco 49ers is quarterback John Brodie, right, and halfback John David Crow, left, shown during Aug. 10, 1965 practive session at the 49ers training camp in Moraga, ... more

Photo: Associated Press

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John David Crow (44), running back of the Texas A&M Aggies, runs the ball up field at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas, circa 1955-57.

John David Crow (44), running back of the Texas A&M Aggies, runs the ball up field at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas, circa 1955-57.

Photo: Getty Images

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John David Crow (right), running back of the Texas A&M Aggies, runs the ball up field at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas, circa 1955-57.

John David Crow (right), running back of the Texas A&M Aggies, runs the ball up field at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas, circa 1955-57.

Photo: Getty Images

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Former Texas A&M running back John David Crow, who won the 1957 Heisman Trophy, (left) and current Texas A&M freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel, who is a Heisman finalist, talk after a portrait session on Dec. 4, 2012, at Kyle Field in College Station. less

Former Texas A&M running back John David Crow, who won the 1957 Heisman Trophy, (left) and current Texas A&M freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel, who is a Heisman finalist, talk after a portrait session on Dec. ... more

Photo: Edward A. Ornelas /San Antonio Express-News

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Portrait of 1957 Heisman Trophy winner Texas A&M running back John David Crow (left) and current Texas A&M freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel, who is a Heisman finalist, on Dec. 4, 2012 at Kyle Field in College Station. less

Portrait of 1957 Heisman Trophy winner Texas A&M running back John David Crow (left) and current Texas A&M freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel, who is a Heisman finalist, on Dec. 4, 2012 at Kyle Field in ... more

Photo: Edward A. Ornelas /San Antonio Express-News

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No player from Coach Bryant’s Alabama teams ever won the Heisman Trophy. However, when Bryant coached the Aggies, John David Crow won the Heisman, Bryant’s only Heisman winner.

No player from Coach Bryant’s Alabama teams ever won the Heisman Trophy. However, when Bryant coached the Aggies, John David Crow won the Heisman, Bryant’s only Heisman winner.

Photo: Bob Owen /San Antonio Express-News

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UT coach Darrell Royal and Texas A&M Heisman Trophy winner John David Crow shown in Austin on June 28, 2007, with a 1957 Chevy Belair.

UT coach Darrell Royal and Texas A&M Heisman Trophy winner John David Crow shown in Austin on June 28, 2007, with a 1957 Chevy Belair.

Photo: Express-News File Photo

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Portrait of 1957 Heisman Trophy winner Texas A&M running back John David Crow (left) and current Texas A&M freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel, who is a Heisman finalist, Tuesday Dec. 4, 2012 at Kyle Field in College Station, Tx. less

Portrait of 1957 Heisman Trophy winner Texas A&M running back John David Crow (left) and current Texas A&M freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel, who is a Heisman finalist, Tuesday Dec. 4, 2012 at Kyle Field in ... more

Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, Staff / San Antonio Express-News

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Crow, a tall, rough and ruggedwas the only Heisman winner in Bryant’s legendary coaching career.

Crow, a tall, rough and ruggedwas the only Heisman winner in Bryant’s legendary coaching career.

Photo: /EXPRESS-NEWS FILE PHOTO

A&M Heisman winner Crow dies at 79

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YAC — yards after contact — was started by Jones Ramsey, the esteemed Sports Information Director at Texas, as a way to run a non-campaign campaign for Heisman Trophy candidate Earl Campbell in 1977.

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Twenty years before the legendary Tyler Rose’s feats on the football field inspired Ramsey to create the now-common statistic, then-A&M coach Paul “Bear” Bryant told Ramsey to invent a statistical category for the best college football player in the land.

The stat: Players Run Over.

The player: John David Crow.

More Information

Career highlights

For Texas A&M’s John David Crow, who died Wednesday night at the age of 79:

Technically, Crow isn’t from Texas — he was born and raised in northern Louisiana — but he is pure Texan.

By blood, sweat and cheers.

Tall, rough, and rugged, he was a true Texas gentleman.

“He was a ‘Man’s Man’ in every way,” former A&M coach R.C. Slocum said in a statement released by the university. “He was a great man, devoted husband, father, grandfather, friend and Aggie.

“I am honored to have known such a giant of a man.”

The kind of man many of us grew up wanting to be like.

A firm handshake and a warm smile — even if half your face was paralyzed at birth — will carry you a long way in life. The ability to run over people, and their knowledge that you can do so, will carry you a long way in football.

Crow had it all and then some.

He was more than a football player — he eventually became a coach and an athletic director, and under his

direction A&M made tremendous strides in women’s sports — but his legacy began on the field.

Many old-time players, their greatness hidden in grainy, flickering black-and-white film, present as less than all that in person.

Not Crow, who was a four-time Pro Bowler and finished second in the NFL in rushing touchdowns in 1962. You could tell he was a formidable player, even if you never saw him play a down.

At 6-foot-2, and weighing somewhere between 215 and a deuce and a quarter, which came off the Buick assembly lines a year after Crow was the No. 2 overall pick by the Chicago Cardinals, Crow looked powerful.

He sounded tough. Walked like a champion. With a head on his shoulders that didn’t seem to need a helmet.

And those thighs … man, those thighs.

Crow wasn’t one of the famous “Junction Boys” at A&M — he was an incoming recruit that year (1954), and back in the good ol’ days freshmen weren’t allowed to participate — but he was one of the crew responsible for the football program’s revitalization.

A&M wouldn’t be the same A&M had John David Crow never arrived on campus.

Colleges

The Aggies had won five or fewer games in eight of the nine seasons (and only six in the other) before Crow, Charley Krueger, Jim Stanley, Ken Hall, Loyd Taylor and Bobby Joe Conrad hit College Station as part of arguably the most heralded recruiting class in school history.

Bryant’s boys went unbeaten in ’56, a year that included the school’s first win at UT’s Memorial Stadium.

The following year, Crow became the first and only Bryant player to win the Heisman. Before the Downtown Athletic Club gave Crow the trophy, Bryant said if his star back wasn’t the winner “they ought to quit giving it.”

Crow was so good that Bryant felt his statistics didn’t tell the whole story. That’s when he had Ramsey tally up the players Crow had run over.

Crow rushed for only 562 yards during his Heisman season, though as a two-way player he had five interceptions for a defense that posted four shutouts and allowed a measly 4.5 points a game.

It was Crow’s powerful running, though, that drew the most acclaim.

Bryant once described Crow as the best football player he ever coached, and in his autobiography “Bear” he gave a breakdown of a Crow touchdown against LSU in ’56 that tells you a lot about Ol’ Crow.

“We ran a trap play and both guards pulled and ran head-on into one another,” Bryant wrote, “Somehow, Crow busted through the mess and ran 81 yards for a touchdown. He must have shook off 15 tackles, the greatest single run I ever saw.

“And when he came back to the bench he patted everybody on the back. ‘Great blocking, boys. Great blocking.’ Ain’t nobody blocked anybody, but he was giving them the credit.”

When his old pal and ex-teammate Jack Pardee died two years ago, Crow told the Houston Chronicle, “If there was a person you would want to emulate or copy, it would be Jack.”

Thousands have said and should continue to say the same about John David Crow.